Fresh Roast Delivered

Sustainability

Sustainability is a catchall term and there are many aspects of the seed-to-cup journey that we can consider with sustainability in mind. Ultimate sustainability needs to be both economical and environmental. For example, growing something in a more environmentally friendly way but, in doing so, losing the ability to make a living from it is not sustainable, and vice versa. From an economic point of view, the speciality movement, Cup of Excellence scheme, and so forth have been working hard on rewarding farmers with more financial incentive for pursuing higher cup quality. The Fair trade certification has focused more on making commodity coffee a more sustainable crop. It is a genuine concern in a plethora of producing countries that failure to make coffee growing economically sustainable has resulted in, and will continue to result in, coffee crops being abandoned for other crops. Agriculturally, we have other sustainability concerns. Leaf rust can devastate crops and feeds into the reason why harvesting coffee can be financially unrewarding. Climate change causes the same problems by altering growing conditions and nurturing disease. Rising labour costs in developing countries also threaten production. In these cases, technology has the potential to help. This complex array of issues is often shared by all producing countries, though sometimes the challenges are unique to a country, which has different organizations and structures in place. All in all, though, concerns about sustainability continue to require every bit of our attention.